


Knot According to Plan

by somedayoneday



Series: Switchverse [2]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: (it's not terrible and nothing goes wrong but it's there), Aftercare, Arguments, BDSM, Bad BDSM Etiquette, Dom!Brian, Dork Lovers Server Challenge, M/M, Rope Bondage, Sub!John, switch!roger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 21:05:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18301928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somedayoneday/pseuds/somedayoneday
Summary: Roger tries using rope bondage on John for the first time. The scene goes well. The aftermath... doesn't.[[AU in which Brian and John are in a pre-established D/s relationship that Roger is gradually being ingratiated into. Can be read as a stand-alone]]





	Knot According to Plan

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: “He’d done a poor job of hiding the damage.”
> 
> Lots of credit to Havvy (dehavilland on ao3) for brainstorming this with me and essentially coming up with half the ideas and also encouraging me to post this.

“Wait, this one needs to go under this one, I think,” Roger muttered to himself, struggling to keep focused on the task at hand with the way John was looking so inviting beneath him – loose-limbed and hazy-eyed, gazing up at Roger like he’d hung the stars in the sky.

Still, Roger really did need to get John’s wrists untied before he could lie down and give John the hug he obviously wanted. The issue was that the rope just wasn’t cooperating.

“I think maybe if I pull this one,” Roger mumbled, laughing to himself a little when it still didn’t work, “I’m a bit shit at this, aren’t I?” He might have felt bad if John seemed to mind at all, but John was utterly relaxed against the bed, even with his wrists restrained, smiling as Roger laughed again at his own terrible handiwork.

Unfortunately, there was one other person in the bedroom with them who seemed decidedly unamused by the whole situation.

“What’s taking so long?” Brian’s voice was hard-edged as he came up to stand beside Roger.

Sometimes when Roger was taking the dominant role in bed with John, it could be easy to get lost in the moment and forget about Brian’s presence. Brian was always there though, sat off to the side, making sure everything ran smoothly – because Roger lacked experience in this, and Brian was rather fiercely protective of John, especially in this aspect of their lives.

Roger had been hoping he could cover up how badly he’d tied the knots in the first place by playing that he was just bad at untying them, but he had no such luck.

Before Roger could concoct an excuse, Brian’s hands were brushing his own out of the way, and his fingers were tracing gently over the twisting lines of cotton rope binding John’s wrists to the headboard. Brian’s mouth pressed into a tight line, and Roger finally started to feel a little bit of a sinking feeling in his stomach, because obviously Brian was annoyed, and it was no secret just how seriously he took this stuff.

It was in slightly tense silence, then, that Brian carefully unpicked the knots Roger had tied. Even for Brian, who was like an unusually tall boy scout when it came to knot-tying, the process took a good few minutes. Afterwards he spent another minute or so just gently stroking the red marks left on John’s wrists, leaving Roger to feel restless and uncertain until…

“Wait in the lounge, Roger.”

It wasn’t a suggestion. It was an order, and it did admittedly make Roger bristle a little. This was _his_ scene, not Brian’s. It wasn’t Brian’s place to be dishing out orders and managing aftercare and the like, it was Roger’s, and the fact that Roger had maybe screwed up a little bit didn’t change that. Nobody had gotten hurt, after all.

A look from Brian was all it took to make Roger swallow those arguments down for later, and retreat to the living room, grabbing his boxers on the way out. He dared a quick glance back before the door closed behind him, and saw Brian pressing delicate kisses to John’s wrists, none of his anger from moments ago coming through in the aftercare he gave his sub.

Roger might have thought it was sweet if he wasn’t sure all of that anger was being carefully held back, ready to be unleashed on Roger once John had been properly looked after.

It was another fifteen minutes – time spent in nervous boredom, flicking restlessly through one of John’s textbooks left on the coffee table and trying to listen in on what was happening in the bedroom – before Brian stepped out, eyes immediately finding Roger where he sat on the sofa.

Brian didn’t even sit down with him. He didn’t even _say_ anything to begin with, just looked at Roger, gaze burning into him and leaving Roger torn between the desire to meet his gaze defiantly and the desire to shrink further back on the sofa.

“What was the plan, if something had gone wrong?” Brian asked finally, voice measured and almost light-sounding. His gaze wasn’t light, though.

“Nothing went wrong,” Roger pointed out, “I knew it wouldn’t. We didn’t do anything he doesn’t like, and John didn’t mind.”

“John wasn’t in the right frame of mind to realise how careless you’d been,” Brian shot right back, “Because he trusts you, which he probably wouldn’t if he realised just how stupidly thoughtless you’re willing to be when it comes to his safety.”

The words stung. Roger was just mustering up a defence when Brian continued.

“What were you thinking, Roger? Seriously, I want to know, because I _told_ you. I told you why it was so important to use quick-release knots, and I showed you how to tie them, and I made sure you had plenty of practice, so I want to know why you ignored _all_ of that and put John at risk.”

“It won’t happen next time,” Roger said, almost surprised by how soft his own voice came out.

“No, it won’t, because you’re not using rope on him again until I’m sure you can be trusted with it,” Brian replied, “Tell me why it happened, Roger.”

Brian probably knew why. He was smart, and he’d been there when Roger was practising those quick-release knots and cursing up a storm because they were fiddly and annoying and he was so far from being able to tie them with the practised ease that Brian did. That was the crux of the issue, really. John was used to being tied up by Brian, who did it so smoothly and confidently that the act itself was erotic; Roger wasn’t even close to being able to do that.

Brian looked at Roger expectantly until Roger finally caved.

“I knew it would take ages. And I could tell John was getting bored and I wanted to get to the interesting part so I- I just tied it a way I knew I could do quickly. So I could get on with the scene.”

Brian looked so fucking disappointed, it was like a physical pain in Roger’s chest to see.

“He’s okay, isn’t he?” Roger asked. John had seemed just fine when he left, of course, but it had been fifteen minutes since then.

“John’s fine,” Brian replied, voice gentling a little just at the mention of John’s name, “He could have easily gotten hurt, though. People can break their wrists trying to get out of restraints like that, if they panic.” Briefly, Brian’s gaze flicked over to John’s Rickenbacker 4001, propped up in the corner of the living room, and he didn’t have to say anything more to get the message across.

Another moment of tense silence passed, before Brian made a move back to the bedroom, wordlessly gesturing that Roger could follow this time. And though sliding back into bed, and slipping his arms around John – now asleep, wrists still ringed with red marks – should have been a balm to the guilt twisting Roger’s stomach, it didn’t help much at all.

He pressed a few apologetic kisses to the top of John’s head, and carefully avoided looking over at Brian as he drifted into a restless sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this and haven't read the previous instalment in this 'verse, you may enjoy having a look ;)
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! I know this 'verse is still very new and I'm not writing it in a super structured way, so feel free to ask questions if you're confused about the set-up (and if I get the same question more than once, I'll probably try to clarify it in future fic).


End file.
